Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department's expenditure was on artificial football pitches in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15 and (f) 2015-16 to date.

Since 2010/11, the Government has invested over £125 million with the specific purpose of creating and maintaining new artificial grass pitches (AGPs) delivered by the Football Foundation, Sport England (whose investment includes AGPs for football, and multi-sport projects/facilities) and Parklife football hubs programme. This investment came to £8,925,413 in 2010/11; £11,958,279 in 2011/12; £18,107,308 in 2012/13; £26,996,902 in 2013/14; £31,751,581 in 2014/15; and £27,407,989 in 2015/16 to date.

Government funding in the Football Foundation has been matched by the Premier League and the Football Association.